She was fiercely tempted to post it to Instagram right now but she didn’t want to spoil the surprise for Jess. She had no idea if her sister even followed her, but she couldn’t take any chances. Instead, she would photograph it today and then post tomorrow and watch her feed explode.
Rachel snapped another picture of the exquisite birthday cake, hoping Jess would love it as much as she did.
This had all been a labor of love. The decorations she and the girls had put up that afternoon, the little pineapple tea lights hanging in the trees, the leis they had made out of paper and straws.
It had been entirely too long since she had spent Jess’s birthday with her and Rachel wanted this one to be unforgettable.
She was just finishing the fruit salad she was serving up inside a cut watermelon when the slider to the patio opened.
“Um. I think we’re going to have to change.”
“You don’t have to change,” she told Grace absently without looking up from rearranging fruit for best effect. “You guys look adorable in those Hawaiian dresses, especially with the plumeria in your hair.”
“Not anymore,” her oldest said.
Something in the gravitas of her tone made Rachel lift her head from the salad and she could only stare in horror.
No.
Impossible.
“What have you done!” she exclaimed.
All three of her children stood inside the kitchen looking like creatures emerging from a mud bog. The girls’ hair, which she had spent an hour curling, now hung lank and wet and their darling matching muumuus she had sewn herself the day before were all but unrecognizable now.
If possible, Silas looked even worse. He was utterly drenched and had mud in his hair as well as across his face.
Ava was grinning from ear to ear, though Grace looked worried. As usual, she couldn’t read Silas’s expression but thought he looked...happy.
“What happened?” Rachel wailed.
Cody came in behind them, his drenched Hawaiian shirt sticking to his chest and shoulders. He had a big wet spot across the crotch of his shorts.
“It’s totally my fault, babe. I’m so sorry.”
“How did this happen? You were only outside for fifteen minutes! Oh! You’re tracking mud everywhere.”
“Everybody stop where you are,” Cody ordered. “Come out into the mudroom and strip down. I’ll carry you into the bathroom to clean off.”
How could he do this to her, twenty minutes before her sister’s birthday party? He knew how important this was to her. She wanted to cry, to scream, to throw the whole damn fruit salad in his face.
“Tell me what happened! You were supposed to just set up the table for the food and get the cooler for the drinks! I told you exactly what needed to be done. Nowhere in those instructions did I tell you to make a total disaster of the night!”
His mouth tightened. “I’m sorry. We were trying to help. A couple of the lawn chairs were dirty from the last rainstorm so we thought we would rinse them off with the hose. I went to turn it on but Silas grabbed the end with the power nozzle when I wasn’t paying attention and ended up spraying everyone. The girls started shrieking and ran through the garden and he thought it was hilarious and chased after them with the hose. You should have seen him smiling. I think he might have even laughed.”
Under other circumstances, she might have found this funny. She loved the times Silas acted like any other boy, teasing his sisters and learning if/then consequences.
Not now. Not when her sister was coming over to celebrate her thirtieth birthday any minute now, along with three dinner guests Rachel cared about and wanted to impress.
Cody picked up a wriggling Silas before he could run through the house and spread the mud. “I’m afraid he sprayed the table, too,” he said, looking abashed. “I’m so sorry. Let me clean everybody up, then we’ll see what we can do to salvage the decorations.”
Now she really wanted to cry. Rachel and the girls had worked so hard to arrange the table with place settings, chargers, her favorite china. It had looked magical, if she did say so herself.
“What were you thinking to let him anywhere near the garden hose? What did you imagine would happen?”
“It was an accident.”
“It always is. You didn’t think because you never do. Silas needs to be watched every single second! I don’t know how to get that through your head. I asked you to do one simple thing and look what happened! This was so important to me and now it’s ruined. Completely ruined.”
Cody’s mouth tightened. “It’s not ruined. The food will still be delicious. The cake is still epic. I’ll clean up the mess. Maybe it won’t be as perfect as you wanted but it will still be a great party.”
“How can it be? Look at you all! I don’t have backup Hawaiian clothes for the kids, Cody. What kind of a miracle worker do you think I am? It’s a good thing I snapped a picture of them earlier that I can use on Instagram tomorrow.”
She thought she saw annoyance flicker in his eyes but it disappeared before she could be sure. “So they can wear something else. They all have plenty of cute clothes.”
“It won’t be the same. You have no idea how hard I’ve worked for the past two days to make everything perfect for Jess.”
“Jess doesn’t need perfect. She’ll know that you tried and she’ll love you anyway for the effort.”
“That’s easy for you to say, especially now that you’ve ruined everything,” she snapped. “Like usual.”
Oh. She shouldn’t have added that. She didn’t mean it. Why did the worst things gush out of her when she was angry?
He didn’t say anything but she could see the hurt in his eyes and she hated herself.
“Girls, go in and take a quick shower,” Cody said quietly. “Grace, can you help Ava get the mud out of her hair? Once you’re clean, find your prettiest matching dresses, the ones you wore in that family picture your mom had us take a few weeks ago.”
“Okay, Daddy. Come on, Ava.”
She dragged her sister away. As soon as they were gone Cody turned on Rachel.
“We were only trying to help. I’m sorry things didn’t go the way you wanted. I wanted things to be perfect, too. I screwed up and I’m sorry. But it was an accident.”
She didn’t trust herself to speak, knowing her anger was completely out of proportion but unable to help it.
“Life doesn’t always go the way we want it,” Cody went on, his voice low and intense.
“You certainly don’t have to tell me that,” she said, her voice just as impassioned.